IllusionTale
by DitBit
Summary: They only killed because they were tired of their constant "happy endings", right? So what happens if even the genocide of all monsterkind becomes...tiresome?


**Author's Note:** So I heard through the grapevine that Undertale was a pretty good game and has been gaining popularity amongst gamers worldwide, so I decided to give it a go. Oh-ho. Oh- _ho_. It's totally taken over my life now. _Thanks_ , feels. Anyways, as I've become more and more absorbed into the Undertale (trash) fandom, I've noticed that people have been creating AUs of Undertale timelines. I mean there are literally countless alternate universes. So I decided to be _super original_ and create my own AU. This takes place after the genocide run. I don't own or claim to own anything from Undertale other than this storyline that I created because dat all belongs to the game's wonderful creator, Toby Fox. With that, I hope you all read, review, and enjoy.

 **P.S.:** This will also be a work in progress on my Tumblr page in comic form. (Pencil-Factory, everyboodayyy.) Updates will (most likely) be slow and possibly crappy. Feel free to draw your own version given that you credit my story. I'm like 99% sure you guys can draw better than I can, and I am the absolute _worst_ at digital art. Like holy.

 **P.P.S.:** This story I may also consider publishing if copyright allows. There's a book selling on Amazon based off of the Team Fortress 2 fandom I found, so I'm interested in attempting to publish mine as well. This being said, reviews and criticism are highly appreciated, as well as anything about publishing this lil' brain fart of a book/story. You guys can message me on Tumblr, I guess. Please comb this over with Toby. Please. I don't want to get this published and then get sued. I'm not a millionaire. Nothing close.

* * *

 **Chapter 1:**

It was funny, really, how in any other circumstance if he were turning into dust that he would have screamed and cried and begged somebody, _anybody_ to help, but this time he had simply given a small, bitter laugh and sat down, gesturing at the human that they could proceed through the Hall.

It was simple. That little shit had won, fair and square.

It didn't really matter to him that the _thing_ was about to exit the Underground with no redemption for their sins. Nothing really did these days.

Sans leaned against one of Judgment Hall's pillars and squinted blearily at his hands that were already crumbling into fine powder.

"heh. this is where i'd usually ask if you wanted anything, pap, but-," a harsh cough cut him off, and when Sans looked down a new splotch of blood was adorning his favorite jacket, "…but i guess 'm just too tired to bother asking this time around. heh. heh…"

His vision was blurring.

 _*You ask Sans if he can still see._

Panic jolted up the skeleton's spine and he was somehow able to force his melting sockets open to stare helplessly at that _thing_ that now stood before him, face devoid of emotion. Sans tried to speak.

"st'll…ain't got 'nough…kid?" he slurred. "c'mon, throw me a _bone_ …here….heh…"

It said nothing.

 _*You gave Sans the diluted "determination"._

"hrg!"

It wasn't supposed to behave like this. _It wasn't supposed to behave like this._ In no timeline whatsoever was that demon supposed to have this kind of control. The determination was eating through his dust, busily filling in every leftover crack and crevice with a kind of raw, burning agony that was indescribable in nature.

A scream died in Sans's throat.

 _*You tell Sans that you want to help._

Help? Hilarious. If it was at all possible, Sans would have spit in its face.

"kid…not only do you have a lot of LOVE, looks t'me like you've got plenty of nerve, too," he wheezed as he attempted to struggle to his feet. The demon gave Sans a smile and reached out its small hands, as if it wanted to help the trembling skeleton up. For the briefest of moments, it seemed so much like an innocent child, merely wanting to lend a helping hand.

And it was in that moment that Sans had never felt rage so pure, but he managed still to put on his usual grin and accept the offer. He wanted so badly to lash out, to scream, to _bash_ in that thing's head and fry its corpse with all the Blasters he could summon. He wanted to choke the life out of its body and gloat as it had done when it swung that wretched knife down and sliced apart his brother, his dear, sweet, _innocent_ Papyrus. He wanted it to die. No. He wanted it to _suffer._

"heh. glad you're finally turning over a new _leaf_ ," he said airily. He felt his ulna beginning to drip onto his radius and had to suppress a shudder at the uncomfortable sensation. "maybe now we can get to the _root_ of this problem. c'mere, m' pally. a hug. for old _thyme's_ sake? heheheh."

He held his melting arms out invitingly. The demon's face lit up in an expression that was almost happiness but not quite so naïve and lunged forward, one arm outstretched to close the hug, the other twisted behind its back-

It was exactly as both parties had predicted how the other would react. But not quite.

 _*!_

"heheheheh. was fun doin' the dunking, kid?" Sans asked through tightly clenched teeth. His sockets were dark and full of pain and hatred as he pinned the demon against the pole he had been leaning on. In the heat of the determination coursing up and down his body, Sans had tried to summon a bone cage using too much magic and had instead broken his sternum and stabbed the demon with sharpened ribs, slamming it against the pillar. It was currently lashing against Sans's makeshift prison, the knife it had been attempting to conceal hacking away furiously at its cramped cell. "not so fun when you're the one gettin' dunked, huh?"

For the first time, it spoke.

" _Shut up!_ " it hissed, mouth and eyes bleeding a black, viscous substance. The sudden image of Endogeny came to his mind unbidden. " _Shut up, shut up, shut_ up!"

Thick, spiked vines began to tear through the Hall's golden tiles as the demon's screams reached a wailing peak. One smashed clean through Sans's rib cage, and the skeleton stumbled back, pain radiating in a ragged starburst in his chest, or lack thereof.

" _Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up-!_ " the demon continued to scream as thinner vines began to snake their way up its rigid body. Strangely, it made no effort to try to tear off the encroaching vegetation. " _Shut up, shut up, just_ shut up, _you, you-!_ "

The vines came to a point just above the demon's heart and began to twist itself into a long, thick stem of some sort that gave way to a tiny, golden flower. A tiny, gold _wait-_

" ** _SANS, YOU BIG IDIOT!_** _"_

Flowey's crazed laughter bounced all around Judgement Hall as his petals ruffled triumphantly on top of the demon's chest. For now, _it_ seemed subdued and paralyzed by the vines.

"Oh, _golly_ , Smiley Trashbag _!_ " Flowey giggled, ecstatic. "Didja ever stop to think that maybe you're not the only one with memories from previous RESETs?"

His sockets were beginning droop shut, his bones fusing and dissolving into greyish white goo. Sans desperately pressed his fingers around the sockets in an attempt to repair its shape, only managing to have one of his fingers stick in the ooze and detach altogether. A stray vine suddenly shot through his jacket's hood and yanked him into the air. He could only rasp weakly in horror as both his legs fell off and landed with a sickening splat on the cracked floor. At this, Flowey only guffawed harder.

"Of course not!" the flower leered. "You're _pathetic._ It's always been Papyrus this and Papyrus that. Well, _Papyrus is dead!_ "

At this taunt, Sans stiffened.

"Think about it, comedian. This human's determination far surpasses anything we've ever encountered before. I know about the other six souls. I know about that machine you and Gaster built. I've stared into the Void, Trashbag. I've tasted raw determination straight from its source. I've been experimenting, Sans, while you've been napping the days away! And now…"

Flowey's face contorted horribly into a hungry, malicious grin as he _ripped_ the demon's pulsing soul out of its body. It gave a quiet moan of discomfort, but fell silent quickly as Flowey's roots sank deep into the blood-red heart, filled to the brim with unadulterated determination. The human's body slumped back and slid down the pillar as Flowey vigorously wrapped his roots around its soul and _drank_ the power contained within, form rapidly shifting.

"And now…!"

Sans dimly noted in the back of his mind that if Omega Flowey had been terrifying, then it couldn't hold a bloody matchstick to _this_ monstrosity. Flowey's laugh reverberated around Judgment Hall, grinding upon every surface like nails on a chalkboard, its manic shrieks positively _dripping_ with maliciousness.

 _" **AND NOW, THIS PATHETIC TIMELINE IS MINE.**_ _"_

The skeleton no longer gave a damn. Actually, no, he _was_ going to give something.

"here," Sans said flatly, gently tugging out his cracked and broken soul, dangling it like some sick trophy in front of Flowey's face. "take the damn thing. see if i care."

" _YOU SURE YOU DON'T CARE, TRASHBAG?"_ Flowey pouted, one of his vines poking at Sans's soul. The skeleton winced at the rough prodding but refused to voice his discomfort. _"_ _BUT WE WERE HAVING SO MUCH FUN!"_

"maybe you were. it's kinda hard to have fun when your very being is fallin' apart, buddy," Sans said tiredly. "and there's not really much left to miss when most the underground's covered in dust anyhow. so, have at it, weed."

He threw his soul out further, inviting the monstrous being roiling in front of him to just _end_ it. The edges of his vision were beginning to grow dark and fuzzy and Sans relished in the fact that he no longer had to suffer in the grasp of this timeline. He'd seen his friends and only family crumble away in front of his very sockets, unable to reach out or help, unable to stop the crazed anomaly from what was fated to happen, unable to win even at the very end, and most infuriating of all, unable to just _die_ like everybody else had it wasn't _fair_ he had to stay when the others went and even now that he was just being toyed with like a damn _pawn_ -

 _"_ _HEE HEE HEE! AS IF I'D FALL FOR THAT!"_ Flowey roared. He paused for a moment to catch his breath and to wipe a few stray tears of laughter that had gathered in the corners of his eyes and grabbed Sans, or more accurately, what was _left_ of Sans, and dangled the skeleton in front of his horrendous face.

 _" **YOU AREN'T GOING ANYWHERE.**_ "

"heh. as if i can actually _go_ anywhere at the moment," Sans snorted with a lazy roll of his eyes. Flowey snarled at the mockery and raised a thorn-riddled vine, aiming straight for the skeleton's soul. Sans closed his eyes and awaited the final blow.

It never came.

It was several tense moments later that the skeleton finally mustered up to courage to peek at what was happening. And if he had to be completely honest, he wasn't sure what he was really expecting. That the moment he opened his eyes the monstrosity would strike? That Flowey had suddenly frozen and started to melt from all the determination? That some fairytale hero had appeared from thin air and was valiantly battling the Asgore-forsaken weed?

Instead, he was greeted with the sight of Flowey back to his original form: small, sunshine yellow, and an innocent smile painted on his face. The masses of vines strewn around Judgement Hall were still present; after all, one of them was still suspending Sans several feet above the ground. With a somewhat wistful sigh, Flowey withdrew his roots from Chara's abused soul and slithered off their chest, letting the human collapse in an undignified heap on the floor.

"Oh, Sans," Flowey cooed. "Don't you get it yet?"

"what, the fact that you're an absolute megalomaniac? yeah, gotcha loud 'n clear there." Sans said. He was starting to lose all sense of feeling, both emotionally and physically. From somewhere behind the flower, Chara mumbled something that the skeleton was unable to catch. Flowey's face darkened. Sans managed to draw the conclusion that whatever they'd said had not been good news.

" _Idiot_ ," Flowey spat. "You're an utter _idiot_. Why can't you see the truth? Must you be so blind?!"

Sans couldn't help but laugh at the flower's tirade. "well considering m' sockets are all but melted shut, i don't think that was a wise decision on your part."

"Shut up!" Flowey cried out in frustration. His face contorted itself into something that resembled a young goat kid and bared its fangs. "You wouldn't understand!"

"sure don't."

Flowe- no, Asriel pounded the tiled floor with a trembling leaf as tears began to leak from his eyes.

"Please! Please shut up! You don't know what it's like to be unable to feel compassion or love, you've always had Papyrus you don't know what it feels like to be forgotten by your own parents you can't imagine what it's like to watch the same things happen again and again and again until you're so sick of the same outcome you'd resort to _suicide_ -, " Asriel took a deep, shuddering breath and glanced back at Chara, who by now had sat up and was watching the exchange with a certain degree of interest, "-and the only person who _ever_ understood me was good ol' Chara, the one person who wanted to try something different, the one person who was willing to be my… my friend…"

Chara knelt next to the sobbing flower and picked it up gently, softly caressing its petals and stroking the frazzled plant's leaves. They suddenly turned towards Sans, an unholy smile stretching from ear to ear. The skeleton felt an icy chill run down his spine. Something was wrong.

"I needed you alive because it's just more _interesting_ that way!" Flowey was wailing. "Nobody can ever predict what you're capable of! _"_ He glared up at the skeleton with watery eyes. "So I-I'm tryin' something new this time around since I've milked the Underground dry of every last detail worthy of noting. And you-!"

"Did you get enough from me?" Chara interrupted, returning their attention back to Flowey, who'd stopped crying and was angrily rubbing tears from his eyes. Asriel's face had disappeared.

"Hope so," Flowey muttered. He sniffled and tugged at Chara's shirt. "Want some more, though." Sans immediately snapped to attention when Flowey grew two new vines, one plunging into Chara's soul again and the other beginning to glow a blinding white.

"hey hey hey hey," Sans suddenly interjected. "the trashbag over here deserves some kinda explanation, yes? the hell are you even doin'?"

"Determination," Flowey said, voice a hoarse growl. "Determination is endless when its owner has sufficient hope, when its owner lives and strives to complete its _purpose_. So much more than what a mere corpse has to offer."

His glowing vine had reached the apparent brightness of molten lava, and was beginning to spasm wildly, its form glitching into a tangled mess of white.

"I don't need the petty amounts of power the other six souls have to offer," Flowey scoffed. "But Chara… oh, golly, it's more satisfying than _anything_ I've ever felt before!"

Sans held up his hands and grinned an empty grin. "try ta keep it pg, will ya?"he joked. "i just wanna know what the whole deal is with your glowin' vine…arm. Or hand? what _do_ you call that thing anyways?"

Flowey bristled.

"They don't have _names_ , idiot," he hissed. "And if you must know, I'm opening up something that should spice this timeline up a bit."

"what, your head? i'd like to see what's goin' on in there."

"I'm opening the _Void_ , you fool!"

For the first time in a long while, Sans found himself struck dumb. Hundreds of questions were bubbling and roiling at the back of his throat, unable to be voiced and threatening to choke him. Upon seeing his flabbergasted expression, Flowey grinned evilly. And Chara, despite being half-unconscious from being drained, was also snickering, a sound that was deeply unsettling. Some unspoken signal had passed between the two.

"Ready, Asriel?"

"Ready."

There was an awful screech and the feeling like every separate atom in the Hall was splitting apart as Flowey's charged vine lanced through the air, tearing open something that was horrible and utterly indescribable in nature and the ensuing blackness that quickly followed was gratefully embraced by Sans the skeleton.


End file.
